Nosferatu (2024)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Fans of Robert Eggers’ previous work will undoubtedly swoon over his gothic re-telling of the classic Nosferatu story.
Willem Dafoe should maybe pop up in every movie nowadays. He just makes everything he appears in better.
The film looks tremendous - from the gothic settings to the costumes and Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography … Nosferatu is a cinematic feast for the eyes.
NO
The story loses steam, becoming laborious by the time it reaches the final act where Eggers tries to balance humor with impending dread and sorrow. For me at least, it didn’t work… at. all.
Perhaps it is time Robert Eggers switches gears and tries something new. Shadowy, pre-20th century blood-soaked, horror-tinged films were fun for awhile, but his approach feels like it has kind of run its course.
Sometimes a movie doesn’t work for someone, while others swoon for it. I recognize that might be the case with myself and Nosferatu. I just didn’t find much to enjoy here, once the aesthetic became all I cared about.
OUR REVIEW
There is no denying that writer/director Robert Eggers is a visionary. Across his four feature films - The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and his latest, a re-telling of the vampire tale Nosferatu, his films all retain a distinctive look and feel. Often bathed in shadows, the stories Eggers tells are creepy and often unpredictable, unflinching in presenting main characters faced with nearly impossible challenges. Eggers is a filmmaker almost seductive in how he draws you into the worlds he creates and equally as impressive are the lingering images, moments, and dialogue that stays with you long after the lights come up and the film fades to black.
And at the same time - Eggers may need a bit of a jolt. His toolbox of tricks may need to be restocked. With Nosferatu, we see both the best of Eggers and begin to see tears in the fabric of his storytelling. There are times when watching his remake of the 1922 vampire classic, you cannot help but wonder if he’s reading his own clippings or perhaps believing his own press.
In no way is that a definitive declaration that Nosferatu is indulgent filmmaking. On the contrary, this movie gives audiences a lot.
For starters, there is breathtaking cinematography from Jarin Blaschke, who has lensed all of Eggers films up to this point. An always fun Willem Dafoe steals much of the film’s second half with a fun performance as Von Franz, an alchemist, professor, and studier of the occult. Lily-Rose Depp has drawn a lot of attention for a performance of great physicality and transformation. The costumes and production design have also garnered many accolades as critics and audiences and awards season voters weigh in on the project.
However, Nosferatu, for all of its charismatic presence and creeping tension, feels like the fourth episode of a mini-series Eggers has been slowly releasing. In totality, Eggers’ films have begun to feel relatively similar, despite existing in different time periods. For me, they are generating diminished returns.
In each of his films, evil lurks in nearly every frame. There is palpable uncertainty and angst in The Witch. Set in 1630s New England, we are hanging on every moment as a puritan family grows fearful of what they cannot see in the woods surrounding their village. A mermaid looms over a delirious descent into madness of two lighthouse keepers in 1890s New England in The Lighthouse. While seeking to avenge the death of his father, a Viking prince is faced with betrayal and uncertainty in The Northman. And here, with Nosferatu, a young woman is haunted by the continual presence of a mysterious man known as Count Orlok (an unrecognizable Bill Skarsgård).
The young woman, Ellen (Depp), is newly married to Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a real estate agent tasked with traveling to Transylvania to sell a dilapidated old mansion in Germany to the reclusive Count. His boss, a squirrelly fellow known as Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), promises a significant commission to Thomas. However, once he arrives, Thomas recognizes that this is no ordinary client and certainly no ordinary transaction.
Back home in Germany, Ellen has a telepathic-like connection to Orlok, which she attempted to tell her husband before his departure. As Orlok draws Thomas deeper into his world, and manipulates Ellen in a more spiritual way, Eggers has lured us in once again to a world full of unsettling characters and visuals, whispery dialogue and a harrowing story that, at least this time around, believes it is far more frightening and unnerving than it actually turns out to be.
While Depp and Dafoe steal the show, they can only do so much when it comes to elevating this material. Hoult is fine but somewhat forgettable, swallowed up in the overall theatrics of the story. A subplot involving Thomas and Ellen’s friends, married couple Friedrich and Anna Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin), proves to be underwritten and thus, never quite inspires us enough when Eggers tries to merge them as key components to the main story.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment is Skarsgård, renowned for bringing charismatic terror to his villainous characters. Though fully committed to the role, the actor is not only unrecognizable underneath all the makeup he is wearing as Count Orlok, but it seems as if much of his performance was done in voiceover. For all his choked whispers of dialogue and menacing looks and actions, he is almost inert as a villain. Beyond his looks, hidden from the audience as a marketing strategy, there is nothing frightening about him. And on some level, shouldn’t we feel the terror and panic he creates in the characters?
At some point, and I have not quite determined when this occurs, Nosferatu just becomes laborious. Perhaps it is when Knock goes off-the-rails and McBurney plays him so hyperbolic and over-the-top that he becomes little more than an annoying caricature. Eggers’ insistence on showing us a possessed Ellen grows tiresome, as clothes can only be ripped at so much and eyes can only roll back so far into one’s own head. Dafoe is a blast of energy the film desperately needs when he steps to the forefront and understands the connection between Ellen and the Count, but Eggers uses him for stabs of comic relief when he is also trying to convey the horror of the moment. As a result, Nosferatu often lives in a discordance of rousing energy and suppressive horror in the film’s final act, ultimately falling short when Eggers clearly believes he is tying all of his strings together in a sinister and diabolically-designed bow.
At 132 minutes, Eggers runs out of fresh ingredients to make his blood-soaked tale of eroticism, vampiric horror, and lustful possession have much flavor. Without question, Eggers is a filmmaker still worth paying attention to. Perhaps it is time he thinks outside of the box and tries something new.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney
Director: Robert Eggers
Written by: Robert Eggers
Inspired by the screenplay “Nosferatu” by Henrik Galeen
Adapted from the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker
Release Date: December 25, 2024
Focus Features